There is conventionally a system which connects a charging apparatus such as a coin vendor or a card vendor to an image forming apparatus and charges for a print process such as copy or printing. Such a system is used in a store such as a convenience store that provides a print service to many and unspecified users or in a company where the number of used print paper sheets is managed in each department.
More specifically, a user who wants to use, e.g., a copy service pays a charge necessary for a print process in advance by putting coins into a coin vendor or using a prepaid card. The user sets various copy parameters (e.g., number of document sheets, number of copies, paper size, and monochrome/color) and instructs execution of the print process. The print operation starts after confirming that a balance corresponding to the charge for printing based on the set parameters exists. If the balance of the paid amount is short, the print process is not executed.
A user can pay a charge for a print process such as copy or printing by using not only the above-described cash or prepaid card but also a credit card. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-132901 describes a print system which allows a user to select a desired one of print charge paying methods such as “credit card” and “automatic withdrawal”.
However, the prior art described above has the following problem. When a user pays a print charge using a coin vendor or a prepaid card, the print process is preferably executed within the range of the balance of cash put in advance or the balance represented by information recorded on the prepaid card. Hence, control must be done such that whether the balance necessary for the print process exists is determined first before the start of the print process. If a sufficient balance exists, the print process is executed. If no sufficient balance exists, execution of the print process is inhibited.
When a user pays a print charge using a credit card, it is possible to execute a print process regardless of the balance unless the used amount of the credit card itself reaches the line of credit. More specifically, after the end of all print processes, the credit company is billed the total charge for the print processes. For this reason, it is unnecessary to determine whether a print process can be executed before the start of the print process.
Conventionally, however, execution of a print process is not controlled in accordance with a charging method, although there are a plurality of charging methods usable for paying a charge for a print process, as described above. For this reason, even if a printing apparatus which allows a user who is going to pay a print charge to select one of a paying method using cash put into a coin vendor and a paying method using a credit card exits, control must be done in the following way. That is, it is always determined before the start of a print process whether execution of the print process is possible, or it is not determined at all before the start of the print process whether execution of a print process is possible.
This problem is especially serious in a system formed by connecting a charging apparatus to an image forming apparatus. More specifically, in a system formed by connecting a charging apparatus to an image forming apparatus, it is not easy for the image forming apparatus side to determine the charging method selected on the charging apparatus side. Assume that use of a credit card is selected as the print charge paying method, and the image forming apparatus still inquires of the charging apparatus about whether execution of a print process is possible before the start of the print process. This decreases the print process efficiency.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problem, and has as its object to provide an image processing system for controlling execution of a print process in accordance with a selected charging method, an image forming apparatus, a control method of the same, a program, and a storage medium.